T-SQL Tuesday: Finding issues with your query plan

This is my first time blogging with a T-SQL Tuesday topic. If you follow my blog you’ve probably noticed that one of the topics I enjoy the most is performance and query tuning.

While at Microsoft, I learned a lot from a lot of great people, such as Joe Sack, David Pless, and Tunji O. I try to pay forward the knowledge that these great people have bestowed on me.

The topic for this T-SQL Tuesday is “The times they are a-changing” and I can’t agree more. Databases are moving the to cloud robots will soon drive our cars… no wait. Cars will put driving robots out of business and drive themselves. Vast patches of farm land are becoming obsolete as hydroponics and aquaponics emerge. The Cubs won the World Series! Microsoft is selling Android phones in their retail stores!?!

All this is proof that times are a-changing and I’ll say that as database professionals we should not be worried but we should adapt and grow our skills.

Like the saying says, “You can’t know what you don’t know.” This should resonate with many of us. Most I/T professionals I talk to say they learn by doing, which is what makes this fake book title so funny.

On July 4th 2016 I released my Health Check tool as a free application for the community. I’ve had feedback about how my FitDB tool has helped DBA’s and developers learn new tricks and this makes me happy.

It’s a simple web app that allows people in our community to upload .SQLPlan files and hopefully get some feedback on what may be causing pains. My hopes are that it will help DBAs and developers grow their skill set.

Please keep in mind that this is an alpha tool and it may need some kinks worked out.

Just as with the FitDB tool, I don’t require any information from you and I’m not storing or will ever store any of your data. In fact, there’s isn’t even a database backend.

So what’s it do? (www.Howsmyplan.com)

For starters, it detects about 50 potential problems that you may have in your plan (spills, spools, constant scans, lookups, and more).